To the Editor:
The election is over and the voters have had their say, at least for now. Carroll County and our nation still face many serious problems. The school problem in Carroll County is still unresolved as are many other school districts across the state. The truth is the system for funding schools in Ohio is broken. Prior to the March 4 election, there was a letter to the editor in The Free Press Standard by Rose Kienzle. I found this letter misleading and a little hard to understand. She stated in the letter a letter in the FPS written by Robert and Gayle Miller was incorrect. No, it was in fact correct. In 1997 the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in the DeRolf vs. Ohio case that extreme reliance on real estate taxes to fund schools is illegal. Rose Kienzle says this statement is untrue and cites statements made by Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Stratton Jan. 26 at a public reception in Carrollton. Justice Stratton said at the reception according to Kienzle, "We (the Ohio Supreme Court) did not rule property taxes to be illegal for school operating funds, teacher and administrative salaries, benefits, transportation costs or any other costs pertaining to the running of schools." She goes on to say the only issue before the Court in the DeRolf case was buildings.
Wow, is this double talk or what? Buildings? In the DeRolf case, there was a motion for consideration for clarification. In this motion, local property taxes may be used as any part of a funding solution, the answer is yes, but property taxes can no longer be the primary source of providing finances. Watch out for the word primary in this motion.
Now, according to Rose Kienzle and Justice Stratton, tax levies cannot be used for buildings. Watch out for the word primary. It now means that if the state of Ohio is the primary or principle funding source and the school district is second, property tax money can be used for school buildings. Complicated? It sure is. It’s a mess. No wonder State Representatives John Boccieri and Mark Okey say school funding doesn’t need fixed, they don’t know how to fix it.
Rose Kienzle said Justice Stratton is a "truth maker." She is not a truth maker, she is suppose to be a law maker. It seems that even our school board has been flim flammed and misleading about the funding issue.
How did we arrive at a screwball school funding system like we have in Ohio? Ask our legislators and Supreme Court. The taxpayers let it happen. No one can convince me this a fair and equitable system. There is only one thing our legislators and Supreme Court will understand, the word "no."
This is sad because everyone loses. To those of you on the other side of this issue, God bless you. You just can’t fix this mess by throwing money at it. This never works. Can anyone out there fix this mess? How about Rep. Boccieri and Okey, or Governor Ted Strickland or Justice Stratton? For what it’s worth, Robert and Gayle Miller were right!
Robert K. "Skip" Bailey
Carrollton, OH
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